Vastly-improved NMI bows to Guam

Guam’s Candico Taman, left, tries to pull CNMI Sharks’ Kelvin Fitial away from Ibrahim Mansaray in their friendly match last Saturday at the CPA Airport Field. (Jon Perez)

The result was a big improvement from last year’s 20-0 humbling the home squad suffered against their Southern neighbors.

Guam led from the start and enjoyed a 19-6 lead at the turn after dominating most of the first half.

The Sharks moved within five after quarterback Jerome Norita’s touchdown. They later converted the extra point for a 19-14 count.

Team CNMI could have either tied or grabbed the lead after June Failauga forced the fumble with Derrick Rangamar picking up the ball and running towards the end zone. However, with Rangamar just a few yards away of scoring another touchdown, officials halted the play and ruled out that there’s no fumble in Guam’s play and instead the pass was incomplete.

Team Guahan scored after that and added another touchdown on an Andy Fernandez interception.

That proved to be the final tally, as Guahan’s defense held its ground against the Sharks’ numerous attempts to score.

After the match, Phillips, in an interview with Saipa Tribune, said Guam always loves to visit the CNMI and looks forward to playing in a friendly match.

“It’s always nice to come back here on Saipan, spread the sport of football, and share it with our brothers up North. Great turnout and thanks to everyone who came out to support both teams,” said Phillips. “It’s my first time back here in many years. The last time I played here was in a youth friendly match.”

Phillips said both squads showed their competitive spirit and enjoyed the annual friendly game.

“Both teams are very competitive. The CNMI has a very good team here. They have good plays and very good technique. They fought very hard. They will get only better and I look forward to playing against them either when we visit them again or host them next year.”

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Football League Association official John Blanco said that though the breaks of the game did not go the Sharks way, he was still pleased with the outcome despite losing again to Team Guahan.

“First, we would like to thank Garth Backe, he put together our offense. There were a few things that happened today that did not go our way. Sometimes we don’t get the breaks that we need but we will learn from this and we have nowhere to go but up. The non-fumble call changed the momentum of the game, it is hard to discount that.”

“Overall, we played good. Guam saw that we’ve improved and the fans also saw it. It is a very good improvement on our part and we plan to keep this team intact and we hope to add a lot of younger guys as next year will be the last hurrah for some of the veterans,” added Blanco.

The CFL official also called on the players to come to practice sessions frequently.

“We just need to get a commitment from the other guys to come to practice more often. We look forward to hosting them again next year as coach Angel Calugay said that they are going here again,” said Blanco.

“But first we will honor our commitment to have our youth league champion go to Guam in January to play against their squad. We will also have friendly matches against the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and hopefully Australia,” he added. (Jon Perez)